Hydraulic oil used in Mulching Skid steers

[Mowermoney]

I have had discussions with cat service reps about the proper Hydraulic oil for Skid steers. They recommended Cat Hydraulic oil when I first bought my Cat 248 in 2003. Now they recommend either 10w -30 or 10w-40 deisel engine oil. I've been having pump whining problems using AW- 32, so I decided to go to a heavier oil, specificlly 10w-30. Now the mulcher seems to be sluggish during the rebound cycle and the cutting performance is suffering.

I would like to poll the members of this forum and ask: "What type of oil are you using?", and, "what viscosity is best for maximum performance?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[McCaskey]

AW32 in 5 gallon buckets from NAPA

 

[fishfactor]

We run AW 46 from NAPA in our Gyro Trac and T320. You are in basically the same temp as me. I'm no expert and have no idea what the difference is between engine oil and hydraulic oil, maybe nothing. But I wouldn't run engine oil. Those pumps and motors are way too expensive to chance.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

You should run what the manufacturer suggest. I've seen this alot. Your problem is cominng from the oil breaking down due to the high cycle times due to high heat and low reservoir size. You should pull a oil sample every 250 hrs and have it checked. This would tell you when to change it and greatly protect your components. For larger dedicated machine's such as Fish's GT 500 hrs is good. The most effective way to protect your fluid, machine, and motor (head) is to control the temp. EVERY machine could use a little more cooling in my book.
Now I have heard of Cat suggesting the oil substitute like you mentioned. Ask a good tech and ask as if the machine was under warranty.

 

[tonyoz]

Use an oil suitable for high speed hyd motors. I run Castrol AWH oil instead of Castrol AWS.The AWH holds its viscosity better in this application so less heat problems. Other brands may have the same spec oil so check out their spec sheet Castrol AWH32 was the recommend oil for ASV RC100 in Australia running mulchers.
Hope this helps

 

[Mowermoney]

Thanks for all the info. I looked in my owners manual and it lists a number of oils and viscosities. I decided to go back to SAE 10 weight motor oil which was about the third choice. The mulcher speed is back to normal and I feel comfortable with this choice. I just ordered a set of new teeth for the mulcher. This should help the grind size for a while.

Back to the woods.